FEATURE
Out of all the members, Bobby Brown has had the most successful solo career. Since leaving New Edition in 1985, his 2ndsolo album ' Don’ t be Cruel ' catapulted to the top of the RnB and pop charts making the new jack swing genre crossover onto the pop charts. New Edition reformed in 1996 to record the album ' Home ' with all six members and then again in 2004 signed to Bad Boy Records with the album ' One Love '. They have spent the last few years touring together and came together to work and produce their new biopic. Although the biopic covers their career from the formation of the band in the late seventies to more recent years, covering Bobby Brown’ s fall out with the band, financial and legal issues as well as personal problems, fans still felt themselves asking more questions.
Here are a few things that came up in the film that you may not have known:
The mothers of the members helped manage the group.
The mothers of Bobby, Ralph, Ronnie, Ricky and Mike were instrumental in the management of the boys, working alongside numerous managers. The mum’ s are the ones who voted and decided to fire Maurice Starr and Brooke Payne as manager; the boys and their mum’ s later brought Brooke Payne, who was Ronnie’ s uncle, back as choreographer whilst at MCA.
Johnny Gill was brought into the group to replace Ralph Tresvant not Bobby Brown.
Johnny Gill, who was a friend of all members of the group, was brought in after Bobby left as his ultimate replacement, or so people thought. However, it was Mike Bivins who recruited him to actually replace Ralph, as it was rumoured Ralph was leaving to work on his solo career.
Boyz II Men were influenced by New Edition.
Boyz II Men named themselves after New Edition ' s song ' Boyz to Men ' off the ' Heartbreak ' album. They were massively influenced by the group and actually approached Mike Bivins who helped manage and produce their own group.
Ricky Bell was addicted to drugs.
' I shared my closely guarded story of pain and addiction for the sole purpose of gifting hope and inspiration to those who may be suffering as I once did. It is my helping hand to you '.
' The New Edition Story ' showed the tumultuous lives of the members of the group. The fights, feuds, struggles and the legacy of the band, but it also showed a story of hard work, forgiveness and friendship that continues to this day.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The 3 part biopic airs in the U. K on the 2nd- 4th March
Melissa-Ellesse Assibey
Ricky Bell’ s addiction to drugs was revealed to the public in the biopic with Ricky making the decision to open up about his time of addiction and recovery. In a post on his Instagram page he shares why he decided to open up about this issue.
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